


Why is it always aliens?

by IaMcHrIsSi



Category: Batgirl (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Bruce only has a cameo, Gen, but it's a very Bruce cameo so he gets tagged, the story is really all about Cass and Steph being awesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-28
Updated: 2018-04-28
Packaged: 2019-04-29 02:48:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14463363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IaMcHrIsSi/pseuds/IaMcHrIsSi
Summary: The alien screams something, raising it's hands (paws?) up in an admittedly kind of frightening way. It would probably be even more scary if Steph new what the alien was saying. Which she doesn't, because alien.“Can't you just, like, leave us alone? We don't have to fight.”Or: Another week, another alien invasion. This time, Cass and Steph have to fight it off.





	Why is it always aliens?

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time writing Steph and Cass, and I really hope I got them right... Hope you enjoy it!
> 
> Also, this fic kind of references my other fic Such a Thursday, but it's really only a self explanatory small reference, so you don't have to read that one to understand this.

The alien screams something, raising it's hands (paws?) up in an admittedly kind of frightening way. It would probably be even more scary if Steph knew what the alien was saying. Which she doesn't, because alien.

“Can't you just, like, leave us alone? We don't have to fight.” She says, but she doesn't really believe the alien would back off. For some reason they never do. Probably because it would be too easy if they did. Steph's always known that fate kind of hates her, but seriously, she has class tomorrow. She can't stay up fighting aliens until 6am.

Suddenly, the alien freezes and then collapses. Behind it, there's a small black figure. Steph grins. Leave it to Cass to destroy the scary alien thing in two moves.

“What are the chances he brought friends?” Steph asks, but it's a rhetorical question. Alien invaders _always_ come in numbers. Which means she can kiss sleep goodbye for the foreseeable future.

“Big. But we win. Always do.” Cass says, and Steph can tell she's grinning even through the cowl her friend is wearing. She can always tell. It's just something in Cass' voice, she thinks.

“Then let's give them some hell, shan't we?” She says, and just in that moment, the roof breaks and three other aliens jump in. Or do they just fall in a controlled way? Steph is not sure, but it's also really not relevant, given that the aliens start attacking them right away.

Steph dodges a punch and then aims a strong kick towards where the knees would be in a human. Do these aliens even have knees? But it definitively seems to hurt, because the alien freezes up for a moment, so Steph follows it up with a sweep of her bo staff towards his head. Now the alien really seems disoriented, so she kicks him in the chest and he goes down. He doesn't get up again. Which is good, because while Cass seems to be doing fine with the other two aliens, there's new aliens coming through the hole in the roof.

“You know, this is the second alien invasion in a week. At least Red Robin and Red Hood had the Lanterns helping out, though. I feel like we should get back up from space as well.” Steph says. She still thinks it's kind of hilarious that Jason and Tim fought aliens on the one night where literally everyone else was out of town.

“Oracle not answering.” Cass says, taking down both her aliens with a beautiful roundhouse kick to their heads. She doesn't even need to catch her breath for a moment or something like that, she just goes on fighting. Sometimes, Steph just kind of wants to watch her in awe, really.

Then it hits her what Cass said, and she curses. Of all the times for her com to malfunction, an alien invasion has got to be the worst. She doesn't even know whether the others are still on patrol. Or where she is, she realizes after a moment. The warehouse looks kind of generic, and she should know....

But then something hits her in the gut with at least the force of a bullet, and Steph reminds herself that there are priorities. Right now, the priority is aliens, nothing else. Because otherwise, Steph is never going to make it to any class again. And that would suck. She's already put in way too much work for college to stop now.

Two bo staff hits later, the alien goes down, and Steph can look over the rest of fight. Cass is in a gaggle of aliens, and there are still more coming through the roof. Time for some bat tech, she thinks. There's got to be some advantage to working with one of the richest men on the planet.

“Light!” She shouts, and hopes that Cass can hear it over the sounds of the fighting. Then, after five seconds, she throws the small grenade and closes her eyes until she hears the telltale swoosh. The aliens are disoriented and she thinks they are blinking, it's hard to see. But it doesn't matter. In a manner of seconds, Cass and her take them down.

Then they stand side by side to face the next wave.

There are so many of them, and Steph can't help but wish she was still Robin. There's something magical about those colors, about hiding in Batman's shadow and thinking with absolute conviction that nothing can hurt you as long as you are recognizable as his partner.

Not that that saved Jason in the end, or Damian, or her. In the end, they're all just kids who can be hurt and killed like every other damn person. At the end of the day, even Batman is only human, and he can't save everyone.

They can also be resurrected, though. Have been resurrected, actually, at least Jason and Damian. Her own case has always been more complicated, what with the coma and all. But they are all alive again. Which is really what Steph should be thinking about, because if you have morbid thoughts in a battle, then you can just go sign your own death certificate.

The aliens reach them. Steph gets the first one in the head with her staff, raising her arm to block a punch coming for her own head. It hurts, more than she would have thought, but she keeps going. A kick to the knee, one to the groin. The latter one doesn't have any effect, which... great. Alien biology. Would have been too easy otherwise.

“Light.” This time, it's Cass who throws the grenade. Steph closes her eyes, and feels a fist hit her shoulder in the few seconds she can't see, but it's worth it when she can take down three blinking aliens a few moments later.

Cass is a goddess, jumping through the aliens and knocking them out wherever she goes, but Steph can't help but think that it won't be enough. Her shoulder hurts, the flash grenades will probably do more harm then good now, and they can't even call for back up.

“Sure wish the Lanterns finally showed up.” She yells, more to distract herself than anything else. Morbid thoughts are bad. Smartass remarks are better.

“Busy eating ice cream?” Cass says, and it sounds like a question. It often does with Cass. She's still figuring out banter.

“Or watching movies. Man, I wish we were watching movies.” A fast punch is aimed at her neck, but Steph twists out of the way just in time and manages to swipe her staff at the aliens knee. He goes down. “Something nice. Have you ever seen the Princess Bride? I feel like watching the Princess Bride.”

“Read it with Jason.” Cass answers. She's sounding the tiniest bit winded, and Steph feels a heavy weight settling in her stomach. Cass is almost never out of breath. “Want to watch it together when... finished. Right word?” She sounds frustrated, and Steph breathes again. Frustrated Cass is way better than possibly injured Cass.

“Right word.” She answers and catches a kick with her staff. “Okay, what do you think of … Tangled? Tangled would be pretty awesome too.” Steph has watched a few Disney movies with Cass, and sometimes with Damian, too, though the little demon won't ever admit to enjoying them. She doesn't think Cass has seen that specific movie, though.

“Sounds good. After we win.” There's an iron conviction in Cass' voice, and Steph wants to hug the girl. Conviction is exactly what she needs right now. Conviction and a goal to look forward to.

“Tangled it is. Plus lots of popcorn and coke. I feel like we deserve it after tonight.” Steph says, and lets her body carry her through another fighting manouver. It's good she's spend so many hours training, because she doesn't need to think about every move anymore. Her body just knows what to do sometimes.

“Where did those aliens even come from? I mean, usually we get at least some kind of warning.” Steph says, mostly to fill the room with something other than the sound of battle. She likes it when there's talking. Makes things feel less... real.

“Others weren't... known, either.” Cass grunts, and with a shock, Steph realizes that they've slowly been pushed towards the wall. No exit route, no plan, no back up, and there's still more aliens coming.

She wonders who'll tell her mom if she doesn't make it. Maybe Dick? Though Bruce might feel it would be his responsibility. Would they tell her the truth, or would they find some lie that lets everyone keep their cover?

“Yeah, it's like Earth's defenses are seriously slacking.” She steals a glance towards the roof. The wall is solid, they're definitively not packing enough explosives to get through that, but maybe the roof...

A sharp stinging pain in her side, and it's only luck that Steph can block the swipe to her head. She should really concentrate on the fight, but they can't win this, so they need an escape route like _yesterday_.

“See the roof? Maybe if we get away we can call back up.” She asks, and hopes that Cass has some explosives on her. Steph only packed smoke and flash grenades tonight, nothing that would help right now. And even if she does have some, the roof looks... too solid. Too far away.

Would her dad even care? Would he even notice if she was dead?

“I have a … grenade. Throw now.” Cass answers, and Steph hears the sharp ping of the device latching onto the roof. Thank God for the bats huge amount of toys. Superman and Wonder Woman have superpowers, but the bats of Gotham have toys, and really, that's way more awesome.

Two seconds later, both of them duck as the explosion rains debris down on them. Pure luck makes sure most of it hits the aliens, who seem confused as to where the attack came from. Steph and Cass pull out their grappling hooks at the same time, and Cass motions for Steph to go first. Steph would argue, but now's really not the time for it, so she shoots her line and lets it carry her upwards.

It's a bit surreal to be lifted up somewhere at a calm pace instead of jumping and being caught, but at this point of the night, Steph really couldn't care less. They're probably going to get out of this, and that's all that matters.

Once she's on the roof, she looks around, and there's... nothing. No sky, no other buildings, even the roof she's standing on seems... insubstantial? Somehow?

“What the hell?” She says, holding a hand out to Cass as she comes through the hole, which is somehow the only thing apart from Cass and Steph herself that seems real.

“Training exercise completed. Congratulations, Batgirl and Black Bat.” A disembodied voice says from... everywhere. It's seriously creepy.

“Training exercise?” Cass repeats, disbelief clear in her voice. Then suddenly, the darkness disappears, and Steph has to shield her eyes from the sudden onslaught of light. Which would probably get her killed in a fight, but she's not in a fight.

She's... in the Justice League training room? What?

“You did well.” Freaking Batman is just... standing there, looking down on them. “Though you should have attempted retread earlier, and you, Batgirl, were not as focused as you should have been. That shoulder injury could have been avoided.” His voice is gruff and deep, like always, and it makes Steph kind of want to deck him.

“A training exercise? Seriously?” She yells, and yeah, maybe she sounds the tiniest bit hysteric, but she thought they were going to die two seconds ago, and now freaking Batman is critiquing the way they fought? Really?

“Why didn't we know?” Cass asks quietly, and yeah, now that she says it, Steph wonders that too. Usually, she knows it's training, but this time, it had felt real... too real.

“A new software, and the Martian Manhunter offered his telepathic abilities. This exercise is supposed to show you how you react in a real life or death situation.” Batman says, offering Cass a hand to help her up. She takes it. Daddy's girl, but there's really never been a question that Bruce absolutely adores Cass, so Steph can't blame her for it.

“Like we've never been in a life or death situation.” She says, and okay, not fair, but really, what was Batman thinking, putting the two of them in there and letting them believe it? They're not kids who need to be taught how dangerous the vigilante life is. They've been there, in real life, knowing they won't survive. It's not something Steph ever wants to revisit.

Batman flinches, a miniscule movement, but it fills Steph with bitter satisfaction. She knows now how Jason used to feel when he did this, even though Jason and Bruce have been getting along better for a while now. She likes the guy, usually, but sometimes he needs to be reminded that his Robins and Batgirls are people, and not just puppets.

“We will debrief in two minutes.” He says, voice not betraying any emotion. As always. Because that would be too freaking human for the Batman. But she's done for today.

“Nope. Black Bat and I have an important meeting with Tangled and a huge box of popcorn. Can't reschedule, sorry.” She says, and marches straight towards the exit. Cass follows her, and Steph takes a moment to loop her arm through her friend's.

“Don't call before at least 11 am tomorrow. We've earned the rest of the night off.” With that, they're out of the room. Batman will probably lecture them about it tomorrow, but that's hours away, and Steph really just needs a movie with her best friend right now.

“B stupid sometimes.” Cass says, and Steph grins.

“That he is. But that's not our problem right now, is it?” She can't wait to sit on the comfy couch, drinking coke and watching the movie.why is it always aliens

“Nope.” Cass says, popping the P. “Now we have fun.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> So, the idea for this came from darkmagyk. When I was writing Such a Thursday, I asked her if she had any idea as to how to get Jason and Tim out of that situation, and she suggested it all being a training exercise. At that point I'd already kind of grown fond of the Green Lanterns intervention idea, but I also loved this one, so... two fics.


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